The incident is saidto have taken place in front of SIPG boss Andre Villas-Boas

Guizhou boss Li Bing claims Hulk – who scored one and set up another – punched his assistant Yu Ming in the face in front of SIPG manager Andre Villas-Boas.

Li said at his post-match press conference: “There were some arguments in the first half and their coaches took the initiative to insult us during the game, that was why we had the arguments with them.

“This lasted until the break, and later, in the corridor, Hulk cursed our assistant coach in English.

“We argued with him and he punched our assistant coach Yu Ming and Yu fell to the ground.

“Foreign players are here to improve our football level. Hulk has strong skills, but he cannot be here and despise Chinese people.”

Hulk, who signed from Zenit Saint Petersburg for £46million last June, posted on Chinese social media site Weibo to deny the claims.

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